Baltimore County Police Highlight Forensic Equipment

A day after forensic equipment was used on the scenes of a pair of shootings in Baltimore County, the county police department's most technologically advanced equipment was on display at an event marking National Forensic Science Week.

Police Chief Jim Johnson said at the event that some of the equipment, including a high-definition panoramic camera, had been used "within the last 24 hours," citing a homicide in Parkville and a police-involved shooting in Woodlawn.

Three pieces of equipment were on display at the event, which was held on the top floor of Baltimore County's Public Safety Building in Towson. One, a PanoScan panoramic camera, allows detectives to take a 360-degree high-definition photo of a crime scene. A computer program that accompanies the $65,000 camera system allows officers and detectives to embed information about DNA or fingerprint evidence found on items shown in the photographs.

Additionally, Baltimore County Police showcased its Brasstrax system, which uses 3D and high definition scanning to photograph, examine, and match the "fingerprint" that every gun leaves on the back of a shell casing.

The Brasstrax system is synced up to a regional database, and can also be used to match casings to a national database when necessary.